The Brazilian National Council of Justice (CNJ) it determined, on this Tuesday, that three chief judges and seven judges of Mato Grosso are retired for diverting money of the Tribunal of Justice to pay off a debt of the Masonic Store Great East of Cuiabá. The decision was unanimous. For the Brazilian law, the compulsory retirement is the largest administrative punishment that it can be applied a judge.

In agreement with CNJ, chief judge José Ferreira Leite, in his administration in the presidency of Tribunal of Justice of Mato Grosso, between 2003 and 2005, determined the payment of close friends' late credits for “to solve the problem of the masonic store with money of the tribunal”. The reporter of the lawsuit in CNJ, Ives Gandra, he affirmed that the accused's depositions “they are true confessions of the deviation of budget of the tribunal for the freemasonry.”

In 2003, Ferreira Leite accumulated the presidency of the Tribunal with the command of the Masonic Store Great East, according to the lawsuit. In that time, the masonic store created a credit cooperative called Sicob Pantanal. Little more than one year later, for bad administration, the direction of the cooperative left an embezzlement R$ 1, 074 million (more or less 630 thousand dollars) in the safes of the freemasonry.

To help the entity of the which was president, chief judge Ferreira Leite it started to determine the payment of late credits for him own and for state judges and friends chief judges. Received the credits, the judges reviewed the money as loan to the masonic store to cover the debt left by the cooperative.

The payments, according to Ives Gandra, they were done in a privileged way. The reporter of the case emphasized that the liberation of late credits should be made with objective criteria that contemplated the 357 judges of the state, in a compared way, what didn't happen. In agreement with the process, just in January of 2005 it went pay more of R$ 1 million (more or less 590 thousand dollars) to three chief judges and two judges that occupied the direction of the tribunal.

The reporter pointed that, between the months of December of 2004, and January and February of 2005, only chief judge Ferreira Leite received R$ 1,2 million (more or less 706 thousand dollars) relative to late credits. And close judges to him also received “astronomical values” when compared to the that was paid the other judges. The justification of the chief judge's defense was the that who did part of the administration of the tribunal had the right of receiving plus, due to having larger load of responsibility.

“As he tells the popular dictation, little flour, my first manioc meal”, Ives Gandra said. As example of the improper improvement to close judges Ferreira Leite, the reporter said that his son, Marcos Aurélio dos Reis Ferreira, received R$ 642 thousand regarding late (more or less 380 thousand dollars). Reis Ferreira was a judge there are only five years.

Ives Gandra affirmed that, besides the improper use of the money, there were other two irregularities in the payment. The indexation index used was larger than what is considered legal for Federal Supreme Court of Brazil and part of the credits they were already prescribed. In other words, the judges had already lost the right of receiving them.

Sought by the report of the iG, lawyer Marcos Vinícius Witczak, that represents José Ferreira Leite, his son Marcos Aurélio dos Reis Ferreira and other three accused, said that it would only be pronounced about the decision later, after talking with their customers. Chief judge Tadeu Cury's lawyers and of the judges punished preferred also if he doesn't manifest after the session.

The counselors also decided to direct the lawsuit to the Public Prosecution Service so that they are open new lawsuits to recover the money that was diverted of the public safes.